The Survivors: Point of Origin (book 2)

Visionary, pt. 3

I HEARD VOICES CALLING. “SADIE! SADIE!” EVERETT’S COLD HANDS CRADLED MY face. Corrina’s screams were desperate.

I gasped for breath and tried to bite back the screams in my own throat. My body shook. I felt a pointed burn at the base of my skull, exactly the same burn I had felt in my throat while I was lost in Noah’s mind.

My eyes unsealed themselves. I was splayed out on the ground, and a crowd hovered over me, including waiters and other diners. Felix was holding a terrified Corrina, and Everett’s face was shrouded in fear and pain.

“Everett,” I breathed, grinding my teeth, as the pain in my head throbbed. “I found them. I saw them!” I gasped. “I saw them kill. I tasted the blood,” I cried. I was hysterical, not thinking at all who could hear me, or what they would think. Everett’s face went even whiter as his eyes widened in horror. I began to seize violently.

“Call an ambulance!” a waiter screamed.

I grabbed Everett’s shirt. “No!"

“Way ahead of you,” he said, scooping me up into his arms. He was on his feet and pushing through the crowd in no time. I could only imagine the restraint it took him to move at a slow, human pace. “It’s fine. She’s fine. She’ll be okay,” he said. “Excuse me, please. Yes, she’ll be okay.” I let my head hang backward. The pain was so much more intense than any other pain I’d ever felt. “Felix, Corrina,” Everett said. “Come on. We have to get her home.” I could hear the questions and serious concern in their thoughts. Why weren’t we going to the hospital? What the hell was that?

But they obliged anyway. I knew it was hard not to listen to Everett Winter when he told you to do something. It was a struggle I felt often. In Felix’s car, Everett held me against his cold chest. “Please get us home,” he pleaded.

“Everett...” Corrina began.

“She’s fine,” he interrupted, his patience wearing thin.

“Maybe we should get her checked out, man,” Felix tried.

“She’s fine!” Everett snapped, harsher this time.

I found my voice again. “No doctors,” I said hoarsely.

Corrina and Felix exchanged glances. They were terrified. What are you not telling me, Sadie? Corrina asked in her mind.

Once we were back at the condo, Everett laid me down on the couch. The pain in my skull had subsided, but a low fire in the spot still burned. I was certain it would be hot to the touch. I wanted desperately to flush the violent images from my mind, but I kept re-examining them, trying to find clues about where the attack had happened, where we would find at least these eight of my missing family. I tried to stop the gruesome scene in my mind before the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth again, but I could not stop it in time.

My stomach lurched with each revolting echo.

Corrina hovered over me while Everett knelt at my side, his face close to mine. “What can we do for her?” Corrina asked.

“Can you just give us a minute?” Everett asked. Corrina arched an eyebrow at him. “Please,” he said. Corrina’s eyes met mine. I nodded, signaling it okay for her to leave. Defeated, she backed out of the room. Everett’s voice was low and hurried as he spoke directly into my ear.

“What happened? What did you see?”

“Eight of my family attacking four girls. Drinking their blood,” I said. Everett winced.

His phone rang. “Ginny,” he said.

“She might have seen it, too, if she was watching my mind,” I said. Everett stood up and answered his phone. “Hey,” he said to Ginny, as he paced. “She’s okay, I think. Just shaken. Did you see it? Was it that bad? Yeah...she mentioned that,” he said as he glanced at me apologetically, his hand in his hair. Ginny had just said, “You could taste the blood.”